TOKYO, May 16 (Reuters) - The dollar moved away from a fresh4-1/2 year high against the yen hit in the previous sessionafter disappointing U.S. industrial data caused U.S. Treasuryprices to rise for the first time in a week, while the eurowobbled near a six-week low.

The greenback was largely steady at 102.15 yen in earlyAsian trade on Thursday after rising to 102.76 onWednesday before pulling back on data showing U.S. industrialproduction fell more than expected in April, and the New YorkFed's "Empire State" business conditions index contracted inMay.

The dollar index dropped 0.1 percent to 83.711 onThursday, extending a 0.6 percent fall on the data during theprevious session, though analysts say the greenback's currentbullish streak is likely to continue over the long run.

Against a basket of currencies, it is still up 0.8 percenton the week, after gaining 1.2 percent last week.

"Of course data releases will impact the dollar, but thereal focus is the Fed's QE3 programme. People will be watchingstatements from officials today and Bernanke at the weekend veryclosely for hints on when they might exit," said YoshioTakahashi, currency strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.

"The data just shows that the U.S. economy is not uniformlystrong, so there is uncertainty about when they could stopeasing," he added.

Financial markets are buzzing with speculation that the U.S.Federal Reserve will begin winding down its asset-purchasingprogramme, known as "QE3", or quantitative easing, which istantamount to printing money.

That anticipation has contributed to the dollar's strengthagainst traditional safe havens such as the yen and the Swissfranc, which has dropped 3.8 percent this month against the greenback.

The Aussie, meanwhile, has lost 4.5 percent thismonth, exacerbated by a surprise rate cut from the central bank,while the Kiwi has dropped 3.6 percent.

On Thursday, the Australian dollar gained 0.1 percent to$0.9907, while the Kiwi gained 0.3 percent to $0.8260.

The dollar has jumped 17.8 percent against the yen thisyear. If it manages to hold onto those gains for the remainingseven months of the year it would mark its best year since 1979,when it gained 23.7 percent against its Japanese counterpart.

Barclays said in a report that most of the dollar's spurtsagainst the yen have taken place outside of Asian trading hours,suggesting that local players are not the major drivers of yenweakness.

The euro was steady at $1.2889 following a beating onWednesday after data showed France had slipped intorecession, while Germany's rate of growth was unable to preventthe euro zone economy from contracting for a sixth consecutivequarter.

The news pushed the common currency down to $1.2642 onWednesday, its lowest since April 4.

Analysts say that the euro would suffer a broad sell-off ifthe European Central Bank took the deposit rate to below zero,as officials have hinted they could do if the economy slowsfurther, meaning depositors would be charged to park their fundsin the bank.